Nat’l ID bills filed by Trillanes, Belmonte

Sen. Antonio “Sonny” F. Trillanes IV and outgoing House Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte have filed similar bills seeking to establish a national identification (ID) system that will be given free to tens of millions of Filipinos.

Trillanes yesterday filed the bill known as the Filipino Identification System bill (Senate Bill No. 95) which seeks to consolidate all other identification systems into one integrated identification system.

Belmonte, on the other hand, filed House Bill 12 which seeks establish and institute such identification system to provide efficient services to all Filipinos, including those who live and stay in foreign countries through the issuance of the Filipino Identification Card.

Similar bills filed were not acted upon by past congresses.

Trillanes said the government would issue Filipino Identification Card that would serve as the identification for all citizens of the country, whether residing in the Philippines or abroad.

This ID would be honored in all government transactions requiring identity of the person, he explained.

“Ultimately, this measure would help the government deliver better services to the people. Having a national ID system would be helpful in our anti-crime and anti-terror campaign,’’ he said.

“By having a centralized database, we would have easy access to information about suspects, fugitives and other lawless elements. Further, this would reduce leakage in providing social services to the people, such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps or conditional cash transfer),’’ he added.

In his own bill, Belmonte said:

“This card shall provide official identification for all citizens of the Republic of the Philippines and unify all existing government issued identification cards. The system will provide for a single card sufficient for all transactions requiring proof of identification with both the government and private sector.”

Belmonte said the Philippines is one of only nine countries in the world without a national identification system.
(MARIO CASAYURAN • CHARISSA LUCI)